My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Jovon Browne

I live at 1001 President Street which is exactly across the street from 1010 President street. I can relate to a lot of the things in the 1010 story I would love to write something like this for my building today and what it is like today. How would I go about doing that? Thanks.

Yes! I would love something about your building today. Just e-mail anything in that you'd like to share with the world. [DNM]

23 April 1997


Vivian Hendler Blumstein

My Brooklyn actually WAS 1010 President St. We lived there from about 1950-1963 and then we moved around the corner to 993 Carroll St. We walked to P.S. 241 and then took the bus to Lefferts J.H.S. what a great neighborhood it was then. Walking along Eastern Parkway on the holidays! We felt that the Gardens were our private territory. We knew every inch of it. Unfortunately, I've lost touch with everyone from there, since everyone eventually scattered to the four winds when we moved away.

18 April 1997


Michael Warren

My Brooklyn is hazy post-war early childhood recollections at 563 Powell St., a '50s childhood in the neighborhood at 365 Amboy St., and coming of age in the early '60s at 636 Brooklyn Ave.

Earliest memories are the circus train coming by each spring on the tracks a block behind our house, an open air market under the El off of New Lots that we would visit Saturday nights or Sunday mornings with big slabs of lox and whitefish, and the pushcarts, open fires and Young Folks Clothing on Belmont Ave. Summers riding the El to join the hordes trekking off to Brighton or Manhattan Beach, or eating our lunches waiting for the draw-bridge to go down on the way to Riis Park, the parachute jump, the side show booths and the honky tonks at Coney island. And the magical trips on the subway to the department stores or movie palaces of Downtown Brooklyn, where the streets were mobbed at all hours of the day and night. Eating Charlotte Russes at a bakery across the street from the Pitkin theater, wandering the aisles of what seemed like the largest Jewish deli in the world—and the only one selling foot-long kosher franks—on Pitkin near Stone, the Health Dept. on Stone Ave. (for polio shots I guess) and the beginning of school at P.S. 182.

Amboy St.—life on the street—the candy store on the corner of Riverdale. Pez dispensers. Two kosher butchers, Taubers Grocery, a dairy & egg place (live chicks in the spring) on Riverdale off of Amboy. P.S. 183. Playing punchball in the school yard where hitting the fourth floor screen was a homer. Off the wall. Stoop ball. Hit the Penny. Chinese handball in the alley. Punchball & stickball on the street. Scully and scraped knuckles. Snowmen and forts in the blizzards. Thousands of kids at Betsy Head Pool in the endless summers. Mom's oblong knishes from the metal wagons. Good Humor & Bugalow Bar. Movie houses caty corner from each other on Saratoga & Lavonia—with 20 cent matinees on Saturday in one of them that went on all day. Chunkies for 5 cents (when we actually paid) on an outer display at the candy store across the street. Buying one admission to the theater & letting everyone in the side door. Kosher deli on Saratoga next to the A&P. The Famous Dairy Restaurant with blocks long lines on Sunday night & vegetable cutlets & kashe varnishkes for dinner. The stars on the roof of the Pitkin theater & the mean matron down below who kept kicking us out of the loges. Collecting Elsie ice cream sticks to get into the bleachers at Ebbets Field and night games with Furillo in right and Snider in center. David Marcus J.H.S., white flight from Brownsville, the Dodgers leave Brooklyn.

After 3 years of long subway trips to Stuyvesant, back to Brooklyn College. Al's pool hall where I heard that Kennedy had been shot. Working as a soda jerk at the luncheonette/candy store at the corner of the junction. White Castle burgers & gorging at Nathan's at 2 am. Chancellor House at BC w/poker & GIRLS. Last gasp at LIU in Downtown Bklyn before taking off in 1966 for the rest of the world & the rest of my "non-Brooklyn" life.

20 April 1997


Readers' reports continue . . .

[ Jump to My Brooklyn, page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368]


subway tokenReturn to Brooklyn Home Page.

Copyright © 1995-2010 David Neal Miller. All rights reserved. For clarification and limited exceptions, see the Brooklyn Net copyright page. Last updated: December 26, 2010